Share 3 items to help new HOA board members

1. Know your documents; I keep a searchable pdf of all of our documents on my phone, home computer, and office computer for quick reference.

2. Visit HOATalk.com daily for current topics but most importantly search the forum, my guess is that if you have a question you WILL find it in the archives.

3. Communicate, Communicate, and Communicate with your neighbors. I use the word neighbor instead of member because I believe when you treat people as your neighbor and not as a member you will get more support with volunteering. We send out 4-6 emails (to 498 people in a 310 home community) a month. Starting about three weeks before a community social event we send out reminders weekly leading up to the event and have a great turnout and a better than you expect number of people volunteering during the events.

1. Listen to your neighbors. You may not always be able to grant what they wish for but most times they just want to be heard and acknowledged. It's their home too.

2. Have the ability to "see ahead". Play devil's advocate before making changes or making snap decisions.

3. Never have a personal agenda for wanting to be a board member. You are elected for the best interest of the entire association.

Establish and enforce a collection policy, but be willing to negotiate payment plans - bad things can and do happen to good people

Be as transparent as possible - meetings should be open, minutes should be distributed to all homeowners and everyone needs to be updated on the budget, so they'll know where the money's going

Embrace diversity - everyone doesn't live in a home with 2.5 children and a dog, nor do we all think, eat, sleep, think, dress or look alike. Take the time to get to know someone who's really different from you and you might be surprised at what you can learn from each other.

I would advise all Board members to:
1. Always use good business judgement when making decisions.
2. Be unbiased, fair, consistent, and understanding when deciding on actions related to the members of the HOA.
3. Be knowageable of the HOA's governing documents, and as necessary refer to them before taking action.

1. Communicate don't litigate. That doesn't mean that you should never litigate but you should try to work things out before going down that road. At the end of the day the only people that win are the lawyers. The Association may be able to recover their legal fees after a case has ended three years later but a) they lose the use of the funds during the time that the issue drags on since the lawyers will be "pay as you go" and b) they might then be stuck with an owner who turns his home over to foreclosure. If it can be worked out without involving the lawyers and without compromising the Association, do it. It's important to be consistent but be fair. If the board is known for pursuing every petty issue there's a greater chance that someone will try to challenge you just because they can. If you are open and communicative budding issues can be nipped before they become major headaches.

2. Along the lines above, you have a fiduciary responsibility to the Association first. Hire competent professional advisers but keep in mind that they are just that - advisers. Sometimes this may mean going against their advice so long as you do it for the right reasons and document those reasons in the minutes. I say this particularly with respect to foreclosures. Normally I would never advise disregarding the lawyer, but a lawyer is always going to recommend pursuing collections to the end of the earth so he's not accused of malpractice. When a foreclosure suit is filed the Association is always at least second in the pecking order (the bank is first). Court cases are expensive when the Association has to file documents and put in repeated appearances at the courthouse. Do your homework - court filings and mortgage deeds are online just about everywhere. If the owner is underwater by $50,000 and he is already being sued by 12 other people, including the tax authorities, you're never going to recover anything. Sometimes it's better to swallow hard and decide to not pursue the owner for whatever he may owe because you have no realistic hope of ever recovering a cent. It may be better off to let the bank deal with the mess and ultimately flip the property to get a good owner in there who will start paying the dues.

When I joined my board the Association was knee deep in a foreclosure suit that had been going on for over six years and the Association had already sunk over $10,000 in legal fees into the guy. When the suit started he owed his bank more than twice what he had in equity and the tax authorities were chasing him down too. In the end he trashed his unit, declared bankruptcy and moved out of state. All we got was a nice letter from the lawyer saying "The sheriff's sale has been completed but unfortunately there are no proceeds to cover the Association as the first lien holder did recover their full entitlement." The lawyer even told the board at the time it all started that they'll never get anything from the guy but he was obligated to recommend that they pursue him. By the time the case was over, the Association was out $13,000 in legal fees and $4,000 in unpaid maintenance fees.

3. Keep a good sense of humor and a level head particularly during meetings. The second you let someone bait you into making an emotional response they own you and you've lost control of the meeting. Most people aren't idiots. If someone challenges a decision, politely stating the facts that lead to the decision and explaining the reasoning will go a long way. We had a constant complainer who would show up at meetings just to be cause a scene. Even when we explained why we did what we did he kept on going. We knew we'd never sell him on our decision but what we were doing was selling everyone else. Before too long someone in the audience would say "Shut up Bill." "We" were the enemy but when his friends started telling him to give it a rest, peer pressure would shut him down every time. Previous boards would openly challenge him and get into a shouting match that would eat up a half hour and people would get up and leave because they were so disgusted.

Sorry for such a long post but I wanted to give you some reasoning behind my thoughts. Good luck!